Tuesday, April 26, 2005

GOSHEN, Ind. — The end of a four-year journey came for 223 Goshen
College graduates, members of the 107th graduating class,
who accepted diplomas from Interim President John D. Yordy in the
Roman Gingerich Recreation-Fitness Center on April 24.

Now, as they leave their
college years behind, said Commencement speaker and Mennonite pastor
Dorothy Nickel Friesen, members of the class of 2005 need to consider
what kind of “traveling shoes” they will wear, and where
their feet will take them. They should be prepared to make a difference
in the world, Nickel Friesen said, having entered a Christ-centered
college of passionate learning, global citizenship, compassionate
peacemaking and servant leadership and emerging transformed.

The graduates
had already started to break in their post-college traveling shoes,
having taken the traditional walk across campus from the Union
Building to the Recreation-Fitness Center despite the windy and
cold weather. Leading the Commencement procession were current and
retired teaching and administrative faculty members, including
Yordy, Academic Dean Anita K. Stalter and Professor of History John
D. Roth, chair of the faculty senate. The opening prayer was
offered by Larry G. Miller of Strasbourg, Alsace, France, father of
graduating senior Alexandre Miller and president of Mennonite World
Conference.

Nickel
Friesen, who is conference minister for the Western District
Conference of Mennonite Church USA, began her commencement address,
“An Undivided Life,” by remembering when, less than a
month ago, she watched the televised funeral for Pope John Paul II
and was surprised to see that he was being buried in very simple
footwear that turned out to be his leather shoes –
“ones he wore in his earthly life, walking shoes that had
taken him into homes of the sick, to war-torn Central America, to
be seen in person by more people than anyone else in
history,” Nickel Friesen said. His burial attire had been a
request by the late pontiff, she noted.

The shoes
became a metaphor for the holy life that the pope led. Nickel
Friesen said: “His earthly life and his heavenly life were
not divided. Today I ask you, ‘What shoes are on your
feet?’”

Nickel Friesen
said it is important to live life with consistency and wholeness.
We live in a country conveniently divided by others into
politically polarized Red States and Blue States, the ordained
pastor observed. Sadly, political voices and Christian voices were
“both strident” during the 2004 presidential election,
Nickel Friesen said, as Christians in America seem to have divided
their lives into segments – and their relationship with
Christ does not seem to affect their daily lives.

“We have
divided our lives too much. We have separated our talk and our
walk. We have kept Jesus in the church building and kept him from
the people who make up Christ’s body here on earth,”
said Nickel Friesen. The graduates, she said, will be asked to make
lifelong marriage commitments, job choices and stewardship
decisions. “What will be your intention?” she asked.
“Will Jesus inform your selection of jobs, of how you use
your money and your credit cards?”

Their shoes would take them
to other countries, to walk hospital halls, into difficult situations,
Nickel Friesen said. The graduates are equipped with their Goshen
College education to ask hard questions, as Jesus did in his day –
to speak truth to power, to speak justice – and to wear the
shoes of discipleship in devoting their lives to sharing God’s
love and seeking justice. “It’s the small stuff in life
that’s going to make a difference: how you live, talk, spend
your money, treat your neighbors,” she continued. “Jesus
said, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for the least
of these brothers and sisters of mine, you do for me.’ Small
things add up to big things.”

After Nickel
Friesen concluded her message by directing the graduates to
“walk on,” Yordy presented the graduates with their
diplomas while Stalter read their names and noted which scholars
received degrees with honors. The congregation then sang the hymn
“Guide my feet” and the service benediction was led by
Anne Stuckey of Somerset, Mich., mother of graduating senior
Matthew Stuckey.

During the ceremony, 223
degrees were conferred during the ceremony, including 106 graduates
from Indiana, 29 international students and 36 graduates in the Adult
Programs and Florida extensions. The 2005 graduating class represents
24 different states and 15 countries. Thirty-seven percent of traditional
graduates have signed the Graduation Pledge that reads: “I pledge
to explore and take into account the social and environmental consequences
of any job I consider and will try to improve these aspects of any
organization for which I work.”

During the
student-led Baccalaureate worship service on Sunday morning, Regina
Shands Stoltzfus, former Goshen College Assistant Campus Minister
and who currently is serving as Associated Mennonite Biblical
Seminary's Director of Admissions and Financial Aid, offered the
sermon, “Going Out, Speaking Truth” based on Ephesians
4:1-6.

Shands
Stoltzfus told the graduating seniors, “when you go out and
about in the world, remember who you are. You are members of the
household of God, you are the body of Christ, you are where God
dwells."

She
continued, “The Ephesians text holds together two very different,
but complementary messages – we are one, and we are different.
There is one aspect of our faith identities that holds us together
as a people and as a worldwide community, yet we function in different
roles and realize different aspects of truth as we go out into the
world. The remarkable thing about this Scripture is how clearly it
announces that the church’s potential as a dwelling place for
God depends on community, on being joined together” in the midst
of diversity.

The challenge, Shands Stoltzfus
said, “is to keep unity, yet speak truth. One shouldn’t
be forsaken for the other. New life, new creation is one that is signified
by unity. God has invested the future in us – we, as the church,
are the locus of reconciliation. But it does not come about through
wishing, or good intentions alone. It takes courage, honesty and the
willingness to work for the things that make for peace. May you find
all of this, and more as you journey into the next phase of your lives.”

The
commencement ceremony ended a weekend of celebration activities
which included a senior nurses’ pinning, departmental
receptions, senior art exhibit, the senior program talent show and
a president’s reception.

Goshen
College, established in 1894, is a four-year residential Christian
liberal arts college rooted in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition.
The college’s Christ-centered core values – passionate
learning, global citizenship, compassionate peacemaking and
servant-leadership – prepare students as leaders for the
church and world. Recognized for its unique Study-Service Term
program, Goshen has earned citations of excellence in
Barron’s Best Buys in Education,
“Colleges of Distinction,” Kaplan’s “Most
Interesting Colleges” guide and U.S.News & World
Report’s
“America’s Best Colleges” edition, which named
Goshen a “least debt college.” Visit www.goshen.edu.